The Colombian government suffered a setback on the first day of the new parliamentary year, when both the House of Representatives and Senate voted different presidents than previously agreed upon with the government.
In 2006, at the start of Uribe's second term and when this Congress began to legislate, political pacts rotating the presidency of both houses were agreed and until Monday respected. The government sought to rotate the presidency of Congress every six months, thus allowing the large number of coalition parties to all have a share of one of the Houses' presidencies.
The two congressmen who were to preside over the Senate and the House the coming six months, Gabriel Zapata (Alas Equipo Colombia) and Miguel Amin (Partido de la U), had the full backing of the government, but instead of respecting the coalition pact, the Senate elected Javier Caceres (Cambio Radical) as president and the House elected Edgar Gomez (Convergencia Ciudadana) as its president.
Hours before the election Liberal Party's spokesman, Juan Manuel Galan, said that his party backed the election of Caceres as a way to express rejection for the re-election referendum that still needs to be reconciled between a group conformed by members of both houses of Congress.
Lawmakers defended the breach of the agreements claiming the government has not complied with several promises made to Congress.
These elections against government wishes do not necessarily mean the break up of the government’s coalition in Congress. However, it may represent more difficulty for important pieces of legislation such as the re-election referendum to be passed. Moreover, this legislative period may set the rules for the 2010 presidential and parliamentary elections.
